This program of research is built upon recent evidence which suggests that people may use their social interactions as opportunities to verify and confirm their self-conceptions. Conceptual analysis of this recent research suggests that self-certainty (i.e., the extent to which people are certain of their self-conceptions) may figure importantly in these attempts to verify self-conceptions. A series of studies are proposed to test and elaborate this conceptual formulation. Attention is focused on the role of self-certainty in mediating: (a) the reactions people solicit from other individuals; (b) how people handle self-discrepant feedback when they receive it, and (c) how their friends and intimates react when people's self-conceptions are under attack. Special attention will be focused on the role of self-uncertainty in causing low self-esteem individuals to behave so as to bring friends, intimates and even therapists to validate their self-views. The theoretical implications of self-verification processes for a conceptualization of the processes by which people come to know themselves and the mechanisms that generate cross-situational and temporal stability of behavior will be considered. Furthermore, the implications of research on self-verification processes for understanding the processes that insulate both positive and negative self-concepts against change will be discussed. Finally, strategies that therapists might use to break low self-esteem individuals out of their self-sustaining cycles will be explored.